Yesterday, Microsoft officially confirmed that Platinum Games’ Scalebound had been cancelled. However, alongside that they also confirmed that Crackdown 3 was scheduled for a release in 2017.

Up until now, Crackdown 3 didn’t even have a fixed release window and now Microsoft, with the announcement regarding Scalebound cancellation has confirmed that the highly anticipated shooter will be releasing this year.

While there is still no information regarding an actual release date, it is highly likely that Crackdown 3 will be one of Microsoft’s late 2017 releases, possibly coinciding with the launch of Project Scorpio, both the game and console being one of their most ambitious projects right now.

The cancellation news of Scalebound has left many Platinum fans distraught while others are wondering what exactly is Microsoft’s plan when it comes to competing with Sony in the exclusives race.

As of right now, most of their upcoming exclusive titles seem to be linked to their 3 major franchises: Halo, Gears of War and Forza, raising questions as to how exactly does the company hope to sell their upcoming 4K console, Project Scorpio.

Microsoft has however assured that they are extremely confident about the 2017 lineup which includes Crackdown 3, the Azure cloud based open world game that allows full destruction even in multiplayer, Rare’s Sea of Thieves and Halo Wars 2.

Microsoft has also said that even more exciting titles will be announced at E3 this year, with at least some of them to be released in 2017.

Although, until there are some more trailers and a concrete release date for Crackdown 3, the game can always be delayed to next year as has been the case with numerous other PS4 and Xbox One exclusives since the consoles launched in 2013.

Scalebound, created by Hideki Kamiya, was expected to be released this year and would have featured a 4 player co-op mode as well where players could fight monsters with their dragon as well as 3 other friends.